


First Interaction

by Sticks_And_Stones



Series: When Dreamscapes Cross [4]
Category: Markiplier Egos, Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders, jacksepticeye, jacksepticeye egos - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 22:30:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16841704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sticks_And_Stones/pseuds/Sticks_And_Stones
Summary: This was written before Jack and Signe split.





	1. Mark

Mark knew that something was wrong as soon as the headaches began. It was the day after they uploaded Markiplier TV when the first pounding began. These weren’t the normal stress headaches that he had at the end of a long video shoot; they were too timely, too synchronized. But they were also too painful. At first it was easy to ignore them but every so often they forced him to lose focus. He once found himself laying on his back, staring at the ceiling feeling calmer than ever but with a headache that’s pain rivaled a sinus infection that had put him out of commission for a week. According to his friends, sometimes he would have huge mood swings, going from happy to somber or vice-versa nearly every day… but he never remembered them. The headaches seemed to be slowly making him go insane.

At times he even thought he heard voices.

“You’re going to eat all the advil in the country,” Tyler said as Mark downed two for the second time that day. “Try not to OD if you’re going to do that though.”

‘No. OD on the pills! It’ll be fun!’

“These headaches are killing me! And the doc said that there’s nothing he could do. Apparently it’s just normal headaches.”

“Normal headaches don’t leave you bedridden,” Ethan added. “I will fight that doctor.”

“At least they showed up after all that filming,” Amy said as she pieced together the newest gaming video. “Can you imagine doing everything for Markiplier TV with what you’re going through right now?”

“I’d rather not…” Mark groaned as his head gave a strong throb. “I’d rather just lay here…”

_‘Lazy ass.’_

_‘But I’m hungry…’_

“No, go to bed and get some rest, okay?” Amy said. “We’ll take care of the editing for today, alright.”

“You sure? It’s just a headache. I can work through a headache.”

“No. There’s that study that screens and monitors-”

“Fine. Fine, Tyler,” Mark said and stood, groaning again as the blood rushing from his head caused another pound. “I’ll go to bed but don’t be afraid to ask for help, okay?”

_‘Your friend is correct about the studies.’_

_‘If you get your sleep now, it’ll be better for all of us.’_

They murmured agreements but Mark knew that they would probably leave him to sleep off this headache for hours on end. He made his way up to his room, his headache seeming to get worse with every step until he was gripping at any solid surface to try and fight against the pain. It felt as if dozens of hands were punching at his brain, trying to escape from the confines of his mind.

Chica ran up next to him and sniffed him nervously.

_‘DOG! RUN!’_

_‘She’s not going to hurt you. She cannot hurt you.’_

_‘DOG! SCARED!’_

“Hey girl,” he groaned, gritting his teeth against the pain. “Hope you’re doing better than me…”

_‘Obviously, she is.’_

She sniffed his hand again and suddenly started to growl. He frowned and looked at his hand. Through the pain, everything seemed to be tilting and at the moment, his hand was blurry and there seemed to be… three or four of them. He couldn’t tell. But what startled him, and what Chica seemed to be angry at was the fact that each hand was moving individually to his own. He shook his head but the hands remained, reaching out, clawing for freedom.

_‘Almost… there.’_

_‘Stop trying to get out first and this would go quicker!’_

The world seemed to tilt on its axis and he fell face-forward. His ears were ringing and he could barely focus on anything. Chica seemed to be barking, acting like how she always did when he played dead, but she seemed to know that something was different this time. This time… it might be real.

_‘FREEDOM!’_

His body was shaking now and he wasn’t sure if it was involuntary or his friends or what. All he knew was that suddenly, even though the world was fuzzy and dim, the pain was gone. He heard voices but was unsure of whos they were. There were multiple pairs of feet walking around him and then suddenly, what felt like dozens of hands grabbed him and lifted his limp body up, carrying him somewhere. He cracked his eyes open and saw multiple faces, one or two of strange colors, and all with unique outfits, but all with his face.

Everything went black for a moment and when he next woke up, everything looked fuzzy. He tried to blink in order to see what was happening, but all that came into focus were a few faces that seemed very familiar.

“They’re gonna want to come in and check on him soon.”

“Well we have to

“No, you are just weak and defective.”

“Shut up, ya ol’ fart!”

“At least his are original every time.”

“I said shut up!”

“Fellas, he’s awake!” One of the faces leaned in close and Mark would have screamed and flailed his arms if he wasn’t so tired. It was him… but with a large pink mustache and a gleam of insanity in his eyes. Wilford stared at him with curiosity, his eyes scanning Mark’s face with interest. “Hey there, you Rapscallion! Had us worried there, thought we might kill you when we came out.” He chortled.

“Hey!” Bing leaned in, pushing his stupid glasses up his nose, his breath smelling like nachos.

“It would be best if-f-f you allowed him r-room to bre-ea-athe,” Google said, his voice glitchy as always.

A hand started to pat his face. “Wake up, fella! Don’t go dying on us!”

“Wil, let him breathe.” A strange ringing filled Mark’s ears and he turned his head to see a version of him with gray skin and a blue-red aura. “Mark, you are confused, we know. But we promise that eventually, you will understand more. All you need to know now is that we are your Egos. Hopefully you can figure out what that means and that there are more of us… if you’re not as big of a bumbling idiot as you are in your videos.”

Mark scowled at Dark but nodded in understanding. “Yeah…”

“Good, then we’ll be going now. When you decide to share this information with your co-workers, simply summon us and we will be there to help you explain and understand. That is all for now.”

Dark snapped his fingers and the four Egos vanished, leaving Mark in his room alone. Chica burst through the door with Amy literally right on her tail. The dog jumped up on Mark, sniffing and licking him nervously.

“Mark, are you okay?” Amy asked, feeling his forehead. “We heard a lot of noise and figured that you were just cleaning or something. Then Chica started barking.”  
  


 _‘Yeah, that was us._ Sorry _, she wanted to bite Bing’s head off.’_

_‘It would have done us some good. Saved us more storage space.’_

_‘*** off.’_

Now he knew these voices were real. Maybe he was going insane and these voices were just proof of it… but he had seen the bodies of these voices and they were very much real. He couldn’t be going insane if the voices in his head had a reason and source, right?

“Amy, I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine,” he said, gently pushing Chica off his chest so he could sit up and look at her. For the first time in weeks, doing this didn’t feel like someone was bringing a sledgehammer down on his skull.“I’m better than fine, actually. I, uh… I found the source of my headaches though…”

_‘Oh, this should be fun.’_


	2. Jack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written before Jack and Signe split.

Jack’s problems started with small headaches which quickly grew to full blown migraines and body aches, leaving him bedridden for hours at a time. Without warning, they stopped, but he didn’t have any complaints until the blackouts began. He’d find himself somewhere and realize that how he had gotten there was a complete mystery.

“Go to the doctor,” Signe had suggested, but he knew that if he did, it might end up with years of confusion and medicine. However she was persistent in keeping him healthy so that’s how he ended up with a prescription for new pain meds that would apparently stop the blackouts and minor headaches.

“I hope these work,” he muttered, popping one into his mouth.

“They will, don’t worry,” Signe said. “The doctor knows everything, doesn’t he?”

“Sure,” he replied hopefully, but even his smile couldn’t mask his worry.

The next morning he awoke, he knew that the medication hadn’t worked at all; in fact, they seemed to have gotten worse. He was in his living room but he really couldn’t control himself. Maybe he was sleep walking? He tried to go back to bed or wake himself up but he continued to wander around the room aimlessly.

“What the hell?” he whispered, his voice echoing strangely despite the amount of cloth in the room. His vision swayed and he had to catch himself on a nearby couch.

“Ow… my head…” Jack said, but it wasn’t him. He hadn’t said that, and if he did, he certainly didn’t have a weird heroic accent.

“Hello?! Who’s there?!” he asked. He shook his head, but once again, it wasn’t him doing the movement. Jack was beginning to panic now and suddenly, he tilted to the side and was standing in front of a mirror. A scream ripped from his throat. It was him but it wasn’t… but it had to be, he was looking directly into a mirror. The only problem with this image was that he didn’t own a red onsie and when he last looked at his reflection, he certainly didn’t have that many defined muscles.

“What the hell?” the person asked. “That was quick. This was going to last like another week… maybe it was the meds…”

“What’s going on?!” Jack screamed. The person gripped at their head. “Jack, stop yelling. You’re giving me a headache.”

“You… You can hear me?” Jack whispered.

“Well not if you are that quiet,” the person said, “but, yeah. I can hear you. Don’t panic.”

“Don’t panic?! You took my body or some shit and I’m supposed to stay calm?!” he yelled. The person controlling his body sighed and sat on the couch.

“Give me a minute,” he said.

“For what?” Jack asked. Suddenly his vision tilted again and went dark. Jack looked around nervously and jumped when a hand touched his shoulder. He whipped around to find the person in the mirror standing in front of him. It was exactly like looking into said mirror again and it made Jack disoriented.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

“My name is Jackiboy Man! But you can call me JJ,” he said. Jack blinked and cracked a smile.

“That’s… this is some sort of side-effect from the new medication isn’t it? Weird-ass dreams that include the character I created nearly a month ago for some stupid game?” he asked. “I need to return those pills. I can handle the pain without them.”

“No, this is pretty real! We’re in your Mindscape right now, so it’s not the physical world but that doesn’t mean it’s not real!” ‘JJ’ said. “Listen, right now you’re half-asleep so you may think this is a dream when you wake up, but when you do, I’ll prove to you that this is real!”

“Heh, no this is a dream,” Jack said, rubbing his face. “You’re just a character…”

“Explain that when you wake up. See you,” JJ said and waved his hand. Jack felt himself soaring backwards and sat up, gasping and sweating. He wasn’t in his room but instead sitting on the couch where he had fallen asleep in that… dream…?

“Jack?” Signe asked, coming out from around the corner. “Why are you out here?”

“I…I…” he didn’t get the chance to answer before he felt himself flying backwards again and was suddenly sitting backseat as someone else controlled his body. Signe took a few steps back, her face frozen in shock.

“Hi, Signe,” the person said. “Don’t panic, I’m just proving something to Jack. I’ll be going now cause this has been enough for one day. Jack, you’ll have questions and I can answer some, so I’ll be in your head! Just holler and I’ll be there in a flash!”

Jack soared again and gasped when he was in control again. He and Signe locked eyes.

“What just happened?” they asked at the same time.

“I don’t know but… those meds are useless,” Jack said. “Uh… he said his name was JJ.”

“What?” Signe asked. “JJ, is that supposed to mean something?”

“No, but it was his nickname. He said his name was Jackieboy Man.”

“What, like that character you created?” Signe asked, cracking her smile.

“Just like the character I created,” he replied. Her face fell and she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“I’m getting some coffee… I have a feeling we’ll be needing it…”


	3. Thomas

Joan and Talyn had always known that Thomas was a little strange, but weren’t all of his friends. They didn’t think anything of it whenever he had a sudden surge of emotions or burst out into singing or suddenly got all technical. They knew it was who he was and they accepted that. The first time that they truly did worry about his well-being was when he asked them to leave him alone for a while and took up the entire living room for twenty minutes before coming back looking slightly flustered but better than ever.

“What was that all about?” Joan asked when they were finally allowed back in.

“Oh, I was trying a new form of meditation,” Thomas explained easily. “I think it’ll really help ‘cause I feel awesome.”

“What does it do? Does it help your body, mind, spirit?” Talyn asked.

“It helped me settle any time my personality affects my day-to-day life. Like if my reasoning gets in the way of what I want, I just do that for a while and boom, I’m all better.”

“Dude that sounds awesome. If you don’t mind, could you teach me?” Joan asked. He suddenly froze up and Joan immediately knew that he was thinking of an excuse not to teach them. This meant one of two things: one, he just didn’t want to teach them and two: this whole thing was a lie.

“Maybe… Maybe someday,” Thomas said and stifled a loud yawn. “It does take a lot of energy so, sorry guys but I gotta go to bed. Night.”

Once he was out of earshot, Talyn asked, “So do we press him or do we just let him do his thing until he’s ready.”

“Let’s see how this all plays out. If it gets weirder, we press. If it stays generally the same, then we talk.”

So they did, noticing that his meditations seemed to match up with how he described them: whenever the different sides of his personality clashed and those seemed to be whenever something big was coming up; Thanksgiving, New Years, Disney (for some strange reason). Whenever these happened, Talyn and Joan tried to tune out his methods but for some reason, they were sure that they heard more than one voice downstairs and more than once, they heard Thomas singing Disney.

“I swear that man is going to blow his vocal cords one of these days,” Talyn said one day as Thomas went through his meditations.

“I know,” Joan agreed.

This continued and Joan kept getting more and more curious, especially whenever there was muffled yelling or the odd chaotic noise (they swore that they once heard someone scream ‘False Wood’ or something like that). As much as they would have wanted to check it out and make sure their friend was okay, they stayed away even though they knew he was… talking to himself for some strange reason. But they knew that this was Thomas’ thing and they weren’t going to mess it up and possibly make things worse.

And then suddenly, Thomas decided to explain what was going on. Joan had talked to him about the missed reading and for some reason Thomas had flat out told him that he was talking to himself for twenty minutes.

“Okay, dude, you’re serious? You were talking to yourself again?!”

“Wait, you’ve heard me before?” Thomas asked.

“Talyn and I live in the same house as you! Every time you do your ‘meditation’ thing, we get more and more curious! We’re pretty sure that it’s not meditation no matter what you say,” Joan argued. “Dude, if you’re not going to keep it a secret that you do talk to yourself, why not tell us, in full, what the hell you’ve been doing for the past year or so?!”

In the silence that followed, Joan was positive that they heard voices identical to the ones they heard whenever Thomas was alone.

“Why not? What’s the harm in doing so?!”

“They need to know.”

“It’ll help.”

“They’re your friend. You can trust them”

Thomas sighed. “Alright. Bring Talyn over in twenty minutes and I’ll… we’ll explain what’s been going on.”

Joan opened their mouth to ask about the use of the word ‘we’ll’ but shut it, knowing nothing would be explained right now. “Alright. See you in twenty.”

When they picked up Talyn, their friend had very similar concerns and worries about what Thomas was going to reveal.

“Maybe he’s schizophrenic,” Tayln theorized at one point, but they ignored this theory as much as possible no matter how true it seemed at the moment. Unfortunately, out of every single theory that they came up with during the drive home, that seemed the most likely. When Joan knocked on the door, Thomas opened it and looked exactly like Joan felt; frustrated, excited, and most of all, worried.

“Hey. Just take a seat and I’ll, uh… I’ll explain everything,” Thomas said, waving them in. Joan walked in and looked around, but the entire house was empty except them, Talyn and Thomas. They sat on the couch next to Talyn and looked at Thomas expectantly. Thomas took a deep breath.

“So, first off, let me say, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that I’ve been lying to you about the meditation thing. I have been doing something that helps me, but it’s not… it’s not meditation.”

“We’ve figured,” Talyn said. “So what is it? What is this big secret?”

Thomas sighed, rubbing his face in his hands. “We got this… it’s okay… alright.”

He closed his eyes and suddenly, there were three other people in the room, all of whom looked exactly like Thomas except for hairstyle, outfit, eyewear or makeup. The one closest to Joan was standing in the hallway wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, a black button up with a blue tie, a small image of a brain wearing the same glasses just to the left of it. The entire outfit made him look very business or teacher-like, reminding Joan of every professor that wandered through the silent classroom, correcting students on every little mistake but never taking the time to relax or take a joke. That kind of demeanour on someone with Thomas’ face was very unsettling.

“What the f-”

“Frog!” a Thomas interrupted. This one was standing by the blinds, wearing the same glasses as business-man but with a light blue polo shirt, tan pants and a gray cardigan tied around his neck (Joan swore that the sleeves had cat paws decorated onto them). His logo was almost identical to business-man’s but it was a heart wearing glass and his entire demeanour was the exact opposite of businessman. He had a broad grin on his face and him just being in the room made Joan’s heart soar and do little happy dances as his favorite memories of the past came to mind.

“Now, Roman, you go,” Happy-man said, pointing to the other Thomas near the lamp and TV. This one, Roman, was wearing a costume almost identical to the one that Thomas had worn when he portrayed the Prince in _Into the Woods_ a few years back. He, like the first, seemed to radiate a cheerful energy that made Joan want to sing and dance their heart out.

“I’m good, Patton,” Roman said.

“And as much as I love Word Association Games, and despise agreeing with Roman, now is not the time for one,” Business said.

“Thomas… what’s going on?” Talyn asked, looking around at the men in surprise.

“Well… this is what I’ve been doing for the past year instead of meditation. These… are my Sides,” he explained.

“We represent aspects of Thomas’ personality. For example, I am his logic, knowledge and reasoning,” business said.

“You don’t say,” Joan said sarcastically (not that they expected him to understand sarcasm).

“Man, this does feel familiar! Why does this feel so familiar?!” the happy one, Patton, asked.

“It’s like the first video where you all showed up,” Thomas said. “Or as Joan and Talyn know it, my first session of meditation.”

“Oh, you’re even cuter when you’re not in Virgil’s clothes!” Roman said.

“What?” Talyn asked, surprised.

“Don’t remind me of that.”

Joan jumped, looking around and suddenly spotting the source of the voice sitting in a slouch on the stairs. This Thomas, Virgil, seemed like the very definition of angst personified: dark eyeshadow, a frayed, patched jacket, long bangs that swept over his eyes. Joan could feel a dark energy radiating from this one, making them shift anxiously and worry about things that they shouldn’t even be worrying about. Did the lock their car? Did they remember to log out of their computer?! Virgil glanced at Joan and then shuffled into his hoodie a little more.

“Sorry, sorry,” Thomas said. “So, yeah… What’s been happening is that if I’m ever feeling down, or as I put it-”

“It helps him settle any problems we might have as his personality,” business said. “For example, if reasoning, me, gets in the way of what the heart wants, or what Patton desires, Thomas will talk with us about our problems and eventually settle it out.”

“What Logan said,” Thomas agreed. “But it helps, it really really does.”

“So… this is too weird,” Talyn said, rubbing their face. “I mean, I understand, but I… don’t.”

“You don’t have to understand it right now, but I needed to tell you. I’m done with lying whenever it’s not necessary to do so,” Thomas admitted coldly. The tone shocked Joan. They had never heard him so… angry or disdainful towards anything, even a concept such as lying.

Joan nodded. “Okay… I forgive you, Thomas. No matter how strange this may be, it helped you at least, I’ve seen and heard that from you.”

Talyn sighed. “Yeah, me too.”

Thomas beamed. “Thank you guys so much.”

Patton smiled happily. “Aw, group hug!” He walked forwards but was thrown back by an invisible force before he could get to Thomas. He readjusted his glasses, shrugged and hugged Talyn and Joan instead. Joan felt a little uncomfortable being hugged by a complete stranger but Patton’s happy energy made them want to snuggle deeper into his cardigan and soak up as much happiness as possible.

“It’s a fourth wall column,” Logan explained as Patton released them.. “Keeps us from interacting with him in fear of breaking the fourth wall and having more than one face in shot at all times. The only time it went down is when we took on your faces to help Thomas deal with sudden changes.”

“That I want to hear about cause this is the second time that has been brought up in the past five minutes,” Talyn said with a laugh.

“No!” Virgil said, obviously not fond of those memories.

Roman groaned but mouthed ‘Eventually, we will.’ to Joan, making them snort.

“But I ask one thing of you, Thomas,” Talyn said, making the light buzz that had been building go silent. “I want to be introduced to these guys one-by-one, get to know them and then, Virgil, right? I want to know how you do that eyeshadow because that’s amazing.”

Virgil looked at Talyn for a second in disbelief before giving a small grin. “Sure. I’d love to.”

“And I’d love to introduce you all to my friends.”

“But we know about your friends. We are in your head all the time so we know-”

“Just let him do his thing, Glasses,” Roman said.

“Well, Talyn, Joan, this is Patton. He represents my morality, my heart, my nostalgia and most importantly, all of my emotions. He, like me, is a Hufflepuff,” Thomas said. “He is almost literally the dad of the group.”

“Well I certainly am not the metaphorical one or I’d be make-believe!” Patton said happily. Joan snorted. It wasn’t the best of jokes but the way he said it with such confidence and still with that smile on his face made it impossible not to love him.

“This is Roman. He’s my creativity, my ego, and he himself creates my fantasies, my passions, and the lover. And, unsurprisingly, he’s our fellow Gryffindor.”

“So you’re the one always singing Disney!” Joan realized.

“Yes, that’s me. I have a heavy passion for Disney fashion, and I know you two can see why. Disney is absolutely amazing and the songs created should not be ignored in any situation,” Roman said and began to sing. “I’ve been staring-”

“Roman, we’d love to hear it but at the moment, singing is not a way to get to know people,” Thomas said.

“Not necessarily. Most Disney songs are to show who a person is and if you mean songs about one person getting to know the other ‘Love’s an Open Door’ from Frozen,” Joan argued. Roman scoffed and clapped his hands in Joan’s direction before waving them frantically, a huge grin on his face. “I knew there was a reason I agreed to this! Thank you Joan for knowing so much about Disney.”

“Anyways, this is Logan my-”

“I already told them so telling them again would be redundant, would it not?” Logan asked.

“It’s still a get-to-know each other segment of the story, Logan. Skipping over anyone wouldn’t let Joan and Talyn to know us!” Patton argued.

“But I explained to them-”

“He’s my logic, reasoning, knowledge and sometimes fashion consultant,” Thomas interrupted, shooting a glare at Logan.

“Since when? Last time he gave you fashion advice you looked like a character from _Book of Mormon_ who’s outfit got five sizes too small,” Virgil said. Roman snorted and Patton couldn’t help but give a partially genuine smile towards this insult.

“I was trying to help him,” Logan said. “And it worked! We got past the problems by figuring out that the outfit I gave him was not the correct fashion for him and it ended up with our creation of the Mindpalace and in the next session, our experiences as your friends.”

“Okay, as soon as we’re done, there is no avoiding that subject,” Talyn said. “That is literally come up in any change of subject.”

“Vetal Miking!” someone coughed but Joan couldn’t pin point which Thomas had said this strange saying.

Virgil groaned, probably realizing that a lot of attention was about to be drawn over to him now that he was the only one who hadn’t been introduced. 

“And this is Virgil! He’s my anxiety, and yes, it doesn’t sound… ideal, but he’s the one that keeps me safe. He’s the one that makes sure that I double check everything, worry about things, that type of stuff,” Thomas explained, gesturing to the anxious Side. Virgil gave a small wave. “Hey.”

“And guys, this is Joan and Tayln. Joan and Talyn… my Sides.”


End file.
